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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Though this prompted that there were 0 packages to upgrade, install or remove, so looks like it's already been installed as part of the installation process (I did use the non-free image to install), so I'm proceeding with creating the Xorg configuration file, then on with the Steam installation instructions.

Ok, it seems my system really hates anything to do with an xorg config.

I attempted to open the ATI Catalyst Control Center (When I checked in Synpatic, it was already installed without me needing to do anything) so that I could enable Crossfire on my system, but on attempting to open it I get the following message,

Code:

There was a problem initializing Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition. It could be the following,
No AMD Graphics Driver is installed, or the AMD driver is not functioning properly.
Please install the AMD driver appropriate to your AMD hardware or configure using aticonfig

So I realise I haven't run,

Code:

sudo aticonfig --intial

yet, so I go ahead and run that, then reboot. As soon as I reboot, yep, you guessed it, I'm back to booting into the command line again!
However, if I browse to /etc/X11 and then delete the xorg.conf files (I checked and the file was no present before running the aticonfig) and then reboot again, I'm back to booting into the GUI.

According to Synpatic, the non-free AMD RadeonHD display driver (Package fglrx-driver) is installed.

I really have NOT had a need for /etc/X11/xorg.conf for a while. Most adjustments (if any) can be made with xrandr and xinput after starting your window manager. Or amdcccle that is part of ati/amd's proprietary driver. You might need to build the fglrx kernel module and load it manually before starting kde. Depending on stuff (kernel source / video driver source). If you've used the proprietary driver by non distro specific means, you might need to reinstall that driver everytime that the kernel updates. Even if the kernel version is basically the same / security updates.

You can also start X / kde from the commandline.

# modprobe fglrx
$ echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc
$ startx -- :0

You might be missing a display manager which does most of the gui login stuff. gdm, kdm, wdm, xdm, lightdm, and others depending on what you have installed. You only need one of those installed, and I'm not sure what the default is these days as I prefer booting to the command line.

In this case, the xorg configuration file is needed to specify the fglrx driver.

When the OP removes the file, the system uses the non-proprietary AMD driver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_7

You might need to build the fglrx kernel module and load it manually before starting kde. Depending on stuff (kernel source / video driver source). If you've used the proprietary driver by non distro specific means, you might need to reinstall that driver everytime that the kernel updates.

Just ran,
[code]sudo aptitude -r install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') fglrx-driver
Though this prompted that there were 0 packages to upgrade, install or remove, so looks like it's already been installed as part of the installation process (I did use the non-free image to install), so I'm proceeding with creating the Xorg configuration file, then on with the Steam installation instructions.

It's nearly impossible for that to be installed by default.

Did you add the "contrib" and "non-free" to your /etc/apt/sources.list?

First, it seems you didn't install any AMD driver at all.
Second, you created an Xorg.conf file for nothing. If no AMD driver was installed then you don't need an xorg.conf file.
Third, you created that xorg.conf file, didn't configure it, and then rebooted. That's why you booted on tty1.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lagamorph

EDIT 2 -
Ok, removed the xorg.conf.d directory along with contents, rebooted, and I'm back to GUI mode again.

Ok, it seems my system really hates anything to do with an xorg config.

I attempted to open the ATI Catalyst Control Center (When I checked in Synpatic, it was already installed without me needing to do anything) so that I could enable Crossfire on my system, but on attempting to open it I get the following message,

Code:

There was a problem initializing Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition. It could be the following,
No AMD Graphics Driver is installed, or the AMD driver is not functioning properly.
Please install the AMD driver appropriate to your AMD hardware or configure using aticonfig

So I realise I haven't run,

Code:

sudo aticonfig --intial

yet, so I go ahead and run that, then reboot. As soon as I reboot, yep, you guessed it, I'm back to booting into the command line again!
However, if I browse to /etc/X11 and then delete the xorg.conf files (I checked and the file was no present before running the aticonfig) and then reboot again, I'm back to booting into the GUI.

According to Synpatic, the non-free AMD RadeonHD display driver (Package fglrx-driver) is installed.

Please, if you're going to install the non-free AMD drivers the best way to do so is to follow what I described ->

First, it seems you didn't install any AMD driver at all.
Second, you created an Xorg.conf file for nothing. If no AMD driver was installed then you don't need an xorg.conf file.
Third, you created that xorg.conf file, didn't configure it, and then rebooted. That's why you booted on tty1.

First, yes he did -- `aptitude install fglrx-driver`
Second, it does need an xorg configuration file to specify fglrx rather than xserver-xorg-video-ati
Third, he did configure it -- that's what the `echo` command did.

But note that if he didn't put "contrib non-free" to his sources.list then that command will output the same as he reported the output was, which is "0 installed". You can read that in post #38 http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post5369987
It's unclear wether he added the "contrib non-free" to his sources.list file, but, considering the results of the command used to install fgrlx, I'd say no fgrlx driver was installed.

Either that or he didn't re-install THE OPERATING SYSTEM and still has some left-over files from the drivers downloaded from AMD's website, which could cause all sorts of problems. I put "THE OPERATING SYSTEM" in bold and italic because on post #33 he said "reinstall done" but didn't mention WHICH re-install he did. Did he install the graphic drivers or the operating system? If he re-installed the operating system then there is only one possibility: that he didn't install any graphic drivers at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head_on_a_Stick

Second, it does need an xorg configuration file to specify fglrx rather than xserver-xorg-video-ati

Yes, when I said X doesn't need a Xorg.conf file I meant that it doesn't need such a file with the free drivers. See:

Quote:

If no AMD driver was installed then you don't need an xorg.conf file

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head_on_a_Stick

Third, he did configure it -- that's what the `echo` command did.

But did he install the driver? That's what I want to know. I'm using only the free amd driver, I don't even have the Firmware installed, and I'll create that conf file to see what happens.

First, yes he did -- `aptitude install fglrx-driver`
Second, it does need an xorg configuration file to specify fglrx rather than xserver-xorg-video-ati
Third, he did configure it -- that's what the `echo` command did.

Technically, not really. Caveat, if you modprobe fglrx beforehand. Implied modprobe -r radeon or blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/... Various ways to skin that cat. Although technically yes, for DRI / 3D acceleration to work properly with the prorpietary driver.

Bear in mind that ati "legacy" cards are no longer supported by the proprietary driver, you must use the radeon driver for kernels > 3.4.x for cards that fall into that category. My now deceased ATI/Visiontek HD 4550 was one of those. But the radeon driver was pretty nice. Or option two, use said older kernel(s) and the ati legacy drivers. Kind of a waste to do that though.

Exactly. The same thing happened with my old 9800GT from NVIDIA. September last year NVIDIA issued a new Legacy driver branch (340xx), and I didn't know that. I installed Arch, installed the newer nvidia drivers, and was presented with tty1 on reboot. I suspect this is what is happening here.

I was informed that there was nothing to install, implying it was already installed, yet this was one of the first things I ran.

As a test, I re-downloaded the installer from the AMD website and ran the .run file, which informed me that an older version of the fglrx driver was indeed already installed. I removed this through Synaptic, rebooted, re-ran the .run file to install the AMD website driver and it installed the driver successfully. I checked the /etc/X11 folder and found that xorg.conf and xord.conf.fglrx-0 files had been created. I rebooted again, which successfully got to the GUI rather than command line, and I can now open the Catalyst Control Center to enable Crossfire.

So for some reason, the only way I seem to be able to install the AMD proprietary driver is to download it from their website :S
The driver I'm downloading is the one AMD lists as compatible with my graphics cards as well, which is version 14.12. The one on the Debian repo appears to be 14.9. It's possible there's some kind of compatibility issue with the older driver, but the 5870 cards have been around for plenty long enough that a 3 month older driver shouldn't really be causing issues I think.